[at-l] Timmy's Transplant Status...

The following is an an email received from Peter Pan (Al Williamson – Trail
Angel) about Timmy’s (Cinda Williamsom – AT 2000 miler ’97 & ’99) recent
pancreas transplant…

Pittsburgh

********************************

Dear Friends:

We got the phone call from the surgeon at 8:50AM on Monday, 11/27. We got
tickets on a Northwest Airlines flight leaving Charlotte NC at 1:45PM EST.
The
plane left a few minutes early and got to Minneapolis about 30 minutes early
-- and there was a gate available! :-) The plane was only about 1/2 full, so
we
were able to get off the plane within 5 minutes of the time it arrived at
the
gate. We headed for baggage claim where Cinda remained while I went to get
the rental car. The bus to the car rental place was standing there with the
door open. I and one other person got on and went to drove to the counter.
There was no one in line. Within 5 minutes I had the car. I drove back to
the
baggage claim area, and Cinda was standing there. We got to the hospital at
4:00PM CST. The next 2 and 1/2 hours were crazy. At one time there were four
people standing around her bed doing things and asking her things. She was
wheeled into the operating room at 6:30 and surgery began at 7:00. I went to
check into the motel right then.

Surgery lasted 3 and 1/2 hours. When the surgeon came out he mentioned that
it would be at least a couple of hours until she would be back to her room,
and that she would be out of it, so he suggested that I go and get some
sleep. I went back to the motel but only managed one hour of sleep --
strange
beds are sometimes tough to sleep in. I learned later that she didn't get
back to her room until 1:45AM Tuesday, and that she had a very bad night. At
5:50AM I got a call from the Resident telling me that they suspected
internal
bleeding and were taking her back to surgery. I was in the surgery waiting
room when the surgeon came out at about 7:00. There had been bleeding from
one of the vessels in the new organ, but they fixed it up and things looked
good. I was back in her room by 9:00AM but she didn't return to the room
until 11:00, and she was pretty sedated. Pastor Lauren Eigenfeld Wrightsman,
who had been an intern at our church in Boone NC and now is at a church in
the
Twin Cities, was with me from about 10:00 until noon.

Cinda was pretty much out of it the rest of Tuesday. Her aunt and cousin,
Jean and Jeff MIchelfelder arrived in the late afternoon and stayed until
Thursday. By Wednesday she was feeling a little better, and they had her up
walking. As I recall Thursday was a good day, but Friday she didn't feel so
good again. (I'm not certain about what days were good and which were not.)
I
went to the St. Olaf College Christmas Festival on Saturday, and to church
at
Lauren's church on Sunday. She was doing well those days.

Then Monday (yesterday) morning she had the first of the three classes we
will have before she is released from the hospital. After the class (about
noon) she started to feel really uncomfortable and had some bleeding in her
urine. The rest of the day and through the night she was in a lot of pain.
That resolved some today. We had the second class today, and she is sleepy
but the pain has eased up and the hematuria has also improved.

Love & best wishes,
Al Williamson



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